Blog Post

I've been playing Pokemon Black 2 lately, since I did eventually acquire it. It was Pokemon Black Version that inspired the start of Miasmon, and I hope the sequel can inspire me to complete it.

Annoyingly, though, seeing the fancy animations in this Pokemon game (which aren't exactly new since Black had them too, but still) has made me feel that the static monster sprites in Miasmon are so flat and lifeless in comparison.

Out of curiosity, I tried animating one of the monsters - Gruul - in vector form to see how it'd look, and to learn how long it'd take... and I was rather pleased with the results! In fact, now that I've seen this, it feels very difficult to want to keep the pixel sprites.

So I think that I may indeed try to convert the existing pixelated battle graphics to vectors, like this!
It'll be a refreshing change that'll no doubt re-motivate me to work on the game... and it'll look much better, too, I hope.
The non-battle graphics won't change, and battles will still use pixelated GUI stuff. It's sort of like how DS games have 3D graphics, but pixelated menus and stuff!

It may take some time to convert the current sprites, but it seems that making one of these animations takes just as long as making a pixel sprite; it might actually be quicker! So if I need to add new monsters - and I still need to add many - then this method seems a good one.

Unfortunately though, I've been having some really frustrating problems with Flash's new-fangled motion tweens, which replace the ones that I've been familiar with for years. It's still possible to use the old "Classic Tweens", but I can see the benefits of this new one and feel I should get used to it. I felt this years ago though, when trying to make Chimaera, but just became too frustrated with it because it seems so... fickle. Unreliable.
Each keyframe now stores transform methods like movement, rotation, scaling, etc separately from the rest, which causes tremendous pain when I want them all to be stored together. It's possible to create keyframes with all transform states set (by pressing F6), but even then, it seems that sometimes (and only sometimes, seemingly at random) when I rotate a MovieClip on one frame, when I release the mouse it suddenly jumps a few pixels up and to the right... And if I drag it back into place, it alters the location of that MovieClip on previous keyframes! So frustrating!

If you have direct experience with Flash CS5 and the problem that I'm attempting to describe, and understand and managed to solve it, I'd be very interested in hearing from you.
If however you've never used this specific version of Flash or encountered this specific problem, then I don't want to hear your 'I reckon' or 'have you tried' sorts of 'help', because it's condescending and not at all helpful when you assume that I haven't thought of something that even someone completely inexperienced would think of without any effort.
"I've never used whatever you're talking about, but have you tried [something really, really obvious]? How about switching to another program entirely? Hope this helps."
Ugh.

ANYWAY, look! Animated monsters!1

(They seem to display at a weird size here, making the pixel sprites beside them look really unpleasant... I might try looking into that.)

Edit: Another one:

This animating problem seems to be getting worse though. I'll show you what's happening; I bet it'll totally be understandable!1
Each of these models is made of various parts on different layers. For example, here, the feather on top of the Meep's head is selected: ∞ Fig Hunter ∞
I want to rotate it slightly - very slightly - so I do so using the Free Transform tool... and this happens instantly: ∞ Fig Hunter ∞
Not only has it jumped to entirely the wrong position (I didn't nudge it at all; I only tried to rotate it), but it's also apparently messed up essentially all the other keyframes in the animation, as you can see from the significantly different X, Y, rotation graph things in the Motion Editor at the bottom.
It makes no sense at all. If I try to do the rotation using the Motion Editor - by dragging a little node on the graph - then it works! So why would the Free Transform tool mess it up so very badly?!?

These look very nice. I didn't mind the pixel art, but vector animations do look far more impressive, and animation always helps to make the game feel more "alive". If you prefer making them that way, that's great!

That's unfortunate about the error you're getting with the animation tools. :( Unfortunately, I know absolutely nothing about Flash, so I cannot help.

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-- If you Press ctrl+T (cmd+T on macs), the "transform" window will appear, which you can use to adjust the numerical value for 3d or 2d rotations, as well as 3d center point, scaling, and skew. I notice that you are not specifically using this motion editor, and I know that you probably know it exists, but I'm not seeing it anywhere on the screenshots. It looks like all the different ways of getting your bug is with motion editing that involves clicking and dragging, so try editing the numerical values. So, uh, hopefully using this specific editor will somehow behave differently than the motion editor/ clicking directly on the corner of the bounding box. I've never had this problem with motion tweens before, and I can't get the bug to replicate at all, so the transform window is the only thing that I have been able to think of that might help.

-- Also, I really like the animated vectors, they do seem more lively and engaging than the pixel sprites. I hope that you can achieve the results that you are looking for!

-- Also, any progress in your comic strip? I'm looking forward to seeing more of it!

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Yes, I'm aware of that and thought that I'd already mentioned it... or I at least mentioned that editing the values with the Motion Editor does work, but that's not a solution because I can't animate by tweaking numbers. It'd be like trying to draw a portrait with an Etch-a-Sketch because my pencil's broken or something. Technically possible, but not feasible and very frustrating.
The Transform window is not the same thing as the Motion Editor, but it's still the same 'tweaking numbers' problem that I have with both. The problem is related to the Free Transform tool and I'm aware of that, but not why the problem is occurring. I'm wondering whether it's something to do with my computer, and am asking on the official Flash forum about it.

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-- Ah, okay. Well, going to the official forum is definitely a good idea... I'm sure you know that you can adjust values in the Transform window like a slider as well? There is a little double-sided arrow that you can use to change the numerical value without actually having to type numbers. Too bad that the Transform window idea doesn't seem to help, though. Once again, good luck!

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